Psychology Professor Cynthia Berg Takes on Diabetes

Diabetes affects an estimated 23.6 million people in the United States according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases. And although some forms of diabetes may be considered more life threatening than others, each can have the potential for dangerous consequences when they aren’t properly treated. With that in mind, psychology professor Dr. Cynthia Berg, along with colleagues Dr. Deb Wiebe, Yana Sucky, Jonathan Butner, and numerous graduate students received financial support from NIDDK, to take on a new research project specifically concerning adolescents with diabetes and their transition into adulthood. Nicknamed READY, The Self-Regulation Approach to Diabetes Adherence Into Emerging Adulthood study follows closely behind previous research from 2005.

For years, Berg has been interested in how individuals across the life span collaborate together to solve everyday problems and deal with daily stressors. “Our research has shown that in addition to having cognitive benefits, collaboration can enhance relationship satisfaction, reduce psychosocial distress, and in the case of dealing with health-related problems, enhance adherence to a medical regimen,” she says.

Berg has been involved specifically with diabetic research in another study known as ADAPT (Adolescents with Diabetes and Parents Together). ADAPT, which was also financially backed by NIDDK, followed 250 adolescents with diabetes and their mothers and fathers. The work indicated that parental monitoring is beneficial for maintaining adherence across adolescence by bolstering adolescent’s own self-regulatory skills and compensating for such skills when they aren’t quite developed.

Following on the heels of the ADAPT results, READY is concerned particularly with the diabetic adolescent and his/her transition into adulthood because it is during that time where he/she learns how to be more independent and rely on parents less. READY will be a four year longitudinal study that will finish in 2016. It will try to explain whether optimal parental involvement occurs as parents and children collaborate in dealing with stressful diabetic events, rather than when mothers are involved in a controlling manner or are uninvolved. Berg explains that by observational design, the study will take place in two places, Utah and Texas. 250 adolescents with type 1 diabetes will be recruited in the Fall of their senior year of high school, and assessed annually for three years.

Berg explains that READY will be broken down into three aims. “In Aim 1, we identify which neurocognitive abilities are needed to maintain adherence across the transition to emerging adulthood through behavioral tests and corresponding self-and parent-reports. In Aim 2, we determine how these neurocognitive abilities relate to the daily self regulation needed for optimal adherence across the transition, using two 14-day diaries conducted in the senior and post senior high school year. In Aim 3, we examine whether parental monitoring across the transition to emerging adulthood benefits those with low neurocognitive abilities, and explore the ways in which parents remain able to monitor daily emerging adults’ behavior.”

The study behind READY is crucial because the developmental period of late adolescence and early adulthood is a time of high risk for youth with type 1 Diabetes due to the changes that occur as youth transition from the family home and pediatric care. In this project, Berg and research team hope to identify the neurocognitive and daily self-regulation skills that are needed to maintain adherence across the transition and explore whether parents may continue to facilitate adherence when adolescents are no longer living at home.

With the research, Berg and team have already come across several interesting findings. She mentions that depressive symptoms in mothers may limit their ability to make changes to their parental involvement over time. And in an interview with FOX 13 News earlier this year, Berg stated, “When dads are involved, it seems to be very beneficial for the kid’s chronic illness management.”

After successful completion of the study, Berg anticipates that REACH will produce findings that will have important clinical applications for the use of family interventions tailored to the self-regulatory skills of late adolescents. She expects it to provide information that can inform novel interventions to promote better adherence and diabetes management as youth move into adulthood. “We hope that the research will show the ways that parents may need to stay involved as adolescents transition in order to maintain good metabolic control.” Preliminary results from the study could be out as early as Spring 2012.